Sleeve expander and/or former



Dec. 15, 1953 Y. AMBER 2,562,673

SLEEVE EXPANDER AND/OR FORMER Filed May 10, 1951 8 JNVENTOR.

Patented Dec. 15, 1953 UNITED: STATES gram OFFICE SLEEVE EXPANDER AND/RFORMER Yervant Amber, Los Angeles, Calif.

Application May 10, 1951, Serial No. 225,563

Claims. 1

This invention belongs to thatgeneral class of devices known "asclothespressing auxiliaries and relatesrpa-rticularly to means forpressinggarment sleeves without leaving any creases whatsoever ill-that suchdevices are forms which readily-conform to the shape of garment sleevesand receivetheirpressed condition by a steaming and-cooling process Thedevices hold the cloth ofwthe sleeve ina taut manner automaticallysozthat an-operator has'looth hands free to smooth the wrinkles and thusmake a complete and finishedpress with a minimum of effort.

The invention has among its objects the production of aameans of thekind described, or similar means, that is simple, durable and compact instructure, inexpensive to make and manufacture, dependable and efiicientin use and service; and a device that is convenient to employ andhandleand which has proven very satisfactory in use whenever andWherever found applicable.

One of the important objects is to eliminate the required hand pressuresnecessary in present types of pelican type sleeve expanders and formersand thus make it easy for the operator to smooth out the wrinkles withhis hands before the steaming operation in that an operator can do muchbetter work and in less time than with the well known types since hishands are 0 free and do not have to be employed in applying pressure tothe expander or former. In applicants device, resilient means areemployed for automatically expanding the former and for limiting degreesof pressure.

Other objects, advantages and features of this particular invention willappear from a careful perusal of the accompanying drawings, thesubjoined and detailed description, the preamble of this specification,and. the claims appended hereto.

Below, applicant describes one of the preferable forms of his inventionin order to teach the art thereof and show how to make and use the same,but it is to be understood that the drawings and description thereof arenot to limit the invention in any sense whatsoever except as the samemay be limited by the prior art.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a side elevational view of the sleeve expander or pressingform;

Figure 2 is a plan view thereof;

Figure 3 is an enlarged vertical sectional view of the handle portion ofthe expander and which clearly shows the interior construction and thepositioning of its various parts;

Figure 4 is a vertical sectional view taken sub: stantially along theline 4-4 of Figure The particular form of the invention, as-illustrated,comprises the main supporting arm I having the handle portion 2, and theunder pi:v oted arm 3'; these parts, forming a pelican type sleeveformer which is a name now commonin the trade because of its shape whichisin the form of the bills of a pelican bird. Both arms have theirdistal ends rounded so that. they can easily enter the sleeve. of ajacket or coat. The handle has a rounded chamber portion 4-in which issuificient room to accommodate the lower end of a catch or'latch lever5, apQrtion of a control lever 6 and one, end of a tensile spring I, asshown.

The control lever B is pivoted to, the handle at 8 and has a portion 9which overlies the handle 2 and which is secured to a wooden grippingmeans Ill. The gripping-means Ill and the arms and 3 may be made of anysuitable material which is non-heat conducting so as to eliminatesweating and accumulation of moisture. Wood has been found satisfactoryin that it does not sweat and is not corrodible so as to cause stains orother marks which might soil or injure the fabric being pressed. One ormore nonrust rivets I l are employed for holding the gripping means IDto the control lever 6. This lever extends from the chamber 4 in agentle arc as indicated at l2 and its end is pivoted to the under arm 3at 13. At the top portion toward the handle of the device, the under armis provided with a groove M to neatly accommodate the slightly curvedelement 12. The element l2 and the two arms have substantially the sameare formation so as to agree with the average shape of sleeves and alsoto form a neat compact article.

The are portion l5 of the control lever has a plurality of teeth 16which are adapted to be engaged by the dog or web portion l! whichbridges the top portion of the latch lever 5 between its legs I 8 and i9, see Fig. 4. The lower portion of this lever is pivoted at 20 so thatthe dog I! at the base of the web can be made to engage any of the teethI6 and thus hold the under arm 3 in any position desired, so as not toexceed the stretch limit of the garment sleeve and thus over stretch itand deform it. The under arm 3 is constantly urged away from itssupporting arm I by the tensile spring 1 which has its ends anchored atthe rivet 2| in the bore 22 and at the hole 23 of the control leverportion or end of the extension l2. The expansion of the device or armsmust be limited in order to prevent damage and deformity of suchmaterial as knitted goods and crepe etc.

It is, of course, understood that various changes and modifications maybe made in the details of form, style, design, materials andconstruction of the whole or any part of the specifically describedembodiment of this invention without departing from the spirit thereof;such changes and modifications are considered as being within the scopeof the following claims.

I claim:

1. In an automatic stretcher device for garment sleeves and the likewhich comprises a principal top supporting arm with a handle portion atits rear end, a control lever pivoted to a portion of the handle andhaving an offset portion extended under the top supporting arm, asecondary arm pivoted to the forward end of the control lever, springmeans in the handle portion which constantly forces the arms apart, and

lever means pivoted to the handle which can be set to limit theseparation of the arms, and said control lever having another offsetrear end portion positioned over the handle,

2. In a device for expanding the sleeves and similar parts of garments,the device having a main supporting arm with a handle portion at an endthereof, an offset control lever having an intermediate portion pivotedto the handle portion, the lever having a relatively short length overthe handle portion and a long arc-like portion beneath the supportingarm, an under arm having a portion intermediate its ends which ispivoted to the forward end of the arc-like portion, a spring in thehandle having one end fixed to the handle and the other end fixed to thelever at the arc-like portion thereof and which spring is constantlyurging the arms apart, and dog means which limit the distance ofseparation of the arms but allow the arms to be brought together.

3. The device recited in claim 2 wherein the dog means consists of apivoted lever which extends upwardly from the handle and through whichthe control lever passes, the pivoted lever having a web thereon whichserves as a dog, and a rounded portion on the control lever having teethon the outer portion thereof which are adapted to be engaged by the dogso that the control lever is always free to be moved in a direction tobring the arms together.

4. In a pelican type sleeve former having a pair of curved arms inlongitudinal abutment, link means pivoted to an end of one of the armsand having an end portion which is pivoted to the other arm intermediatethe ends thereof, the link means passing through said end of one of thearms and extending over a portion thereof to form a gripping means sothat the arms can be worked in scissor fashion, and spring meansattached to one of the arms and to the link means for automaticallyforcing the arms apart.

5. The sleeve former recited in claim 4 wherein a latch lever is pivotedat the said one of the arms and which makes contact with a portion ofthe link means at various points when moved rearwardly, the latch leverwhen in operative position functioning to limit the expansion of thesleeve former to various degrees. I

YERVANT AMBER.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS NumberName Date 2,206,605 Greco et al. July 2, 1940 2,477,878 Jordan Aug. 2,1949 2,478,488 Keck Aug. 9, 1949

